Posted
by
CmdrTacoon Monday December 03, 2007 @09:30AM
from the well-now-there's-an-idea dept.

ptorrone writes "Looking to give gifts this year that are open source? Here's MAKE Magazines "Open Source Hardware" gift guide. Open source 3D printers, TV-turn-off devices, iPod chargers, music players, Wi-Fi companions, educational electronic kits and more. Each of the kits, projects and open source hardware gifts in this guide represents more than just a holiday gift, it's a change to support this nascent open hardware movement."

I can predict an era where 3D printers will be popular and inexpensive and people will be sharing definition files on the Internet for building their own 3D toys, and then at some point a Nigerian will come out seeking copyright infringement damages for the most popular 3D toys.

The AX84 BBS- the forum that goes along with the AX84 website- is a great place to learn about analog electronics. It's primarily tube amp oriented, but is starting to branch out more. And it boasts one of the best (if not the best) communities on the net, anywhere. From beginners to experts, everyone learns, evryone contributes, everyone has fun-- and a lot of very cool amps get built.

Luckily, the company that makes the MP3 IC also makes an OggVorbis IC, that is about the same cost. Of course I don't think it uses exactly the same connections, so you may need to update the schematic of the board a bit as well. But still perfectly doable, if you have the time / knowledge.

it should be made thinner and integrated into shirts....so when you go out, and someone diggs you, they just..uhhmmm..click your shirt.To prevent spamming it would be based on fingerprints (the biological IP address), a fingerprint can digg you only once in 24 hours."So how was it last night""I got digged 300 times""idiot it's dugg, not digged""it's a different word from dig, different rules apply""I am not so sure, let's ask the slashdotters"

Actually, I was thinking that would be perfect for turning those televisions off in public areas where they have removed the power button (because people keep turning them off) or ones that are behind glass or too high to reach. I work at a university and some "saavy" media company has discovered that if they donate a television to the university and broadcast some helpful student messages for about 30 seconds out of every five minutes, they can spend the rest of the time doing product placement and advert

Actually, I was thinking that would be perfect for turning those televisions off in public areas where they have removed the power button (because people keep turning them off) or ones that are behind glass or too high to reach.

Imagine doing it at your local Circuit City, Best Buy, Future Shop, or other electronics superstore - oh all the chaos. Especially if the signal is strong enough to bounce off of walls, so you get TVs pointed away from you as well!

I have a long history with stereolithographic devices (I used to consult with CNC companies as a teenager and young adult), and my dream was to have a SL device that made custom chocolate bars and pieces. While proper chocolate has to be poured at the right temperature into the mold, I've always wondered if there is a future to make a machine like an SL 3D printer that can print in chocolate.

I've done some basic searching, but found no one even talking about it. Yes, it's corny, but I'd love to know if anyone has played with candy/sugar/chocolate as the substrate for a 3D printer.

The current issue of Make magazine [makezine.com] has a short article on a rapid prototyper some guys built that does selective sintering [wikipedia.org] of powdered sugar! Instead of a laser or electron beam to do the sintering, they created a jet of hot air to carmelize the powder. They've turned it open-source and called it the CandyFab project [candyfab.org].

As for using chocolate, I don't know of anyone dabbling in that. But, I suppose there's no reason you couldn't build a fused deposition modeler [wikipedia.org] that uses chocolate chips in a hopper as the raw material. What would you use for support structure?

At one point I tried to print onto tempered chocolate, by using chocolate bloom. It didn't work, but I suspect that it might've if I had a stronger light source that could either trace a path or flash an image quickly enough so that only the outer layer would heat up. When you heat up tempered chocolate above ~92 deg F the beta-crystals break up and form weaker bonds (most likely alpha crystals). This is called chocolate bloom, and occurs naturally in chocolate if left alone for a month or so; although at r

Saul Griffith [saulgriffith.com] built one for his masters' thesis, "towards personal fabricators" at MIT. It's available on the net in pdf format, but in a quick search I haven't found it -- I have a copy on my home computer, though, if you want. It's built out of LEGO bricks with an aluminum nozzle (and a LEGO worm gear) that's heated using a PID controller and a resistive heater, to melt and extrude the chocolate.I'm building a significantly larger version, again out of LEGO bricks. I don't know if I'll manage 0,5mm acc

You're on baby. Well, not from that list though. I'm giving way real open source hardware gifts in bulk and I'm flying from Taipei to LAX on Thursday via Malaysian airlines. I got a box filled with capacitors from 1uf to 4,000uf, resistors of all sorts of Ohmic variations, a stack of breadboards, dozens of transformers of various voltages, an entire box of assorted small motors, LEDs of all colors, 555 ICs, relays, 4040 counters, partially pre-assembled audio amp kits, speakers o